The fact that it was a shortened course did not take away from the excitement of it being Kitzbuehel. With a heavy snow fall causing the race to be delayed to a later start, this time it was the army of volunteers who pushed things to the limit to get the race done. The clench of the fist in the finish by Bode Miller showed the World just what winning a race meant to Miller and the hope of staying in the lead was etched across his face. Sadly Didier Defago snatched the win from his grasp and Miller was left with second place in the Super G; Aksel Lund Svindal grabbed joint third.

Miller said after the race: “It was pretty basic. Ski racing is all about making do with what you get with the weather. This super-G here didn’t give us a lot of chances to make up time. I skied really well but couldn’t do anything else,” he explained afterwards.

With Johan Clarey posting an early lead, it looked like it was déjà vu for Svindal as he lost time on the upper section of the course and then clawed it back and carried the speed into the finish. The defending Champion from 2013 posted the equal time that Max Franz had posted as he had dislodged Clarey from the lead. With the top seeds all down, it looked like the first joint win of the year was about to happen but then Miller came down and received the plaudits of the crowd with a great run. Before he had time to even get into the leaders enclosure, Defago had snatched the lead from him.

With the racers very tightly bunched Svindal commented: “Third is ok, of course I would have wanted to get ahead but I’ll take it. It was a short course and margins were very small. It’s a lot better than cancelling the race. I’m feeling good and want to keep this momentum going,” Svindal said.

The race saw a unusual sight: Four racers, all HEAD racers tieing with the same time: Silvan Zurbriggan, Hans Olsson, Dustin Cook and Silvano Varettoni all took 40th spot!

The podium for Svindal keeps the lead healthy in the Super G World Cup and Bode Miller moves up to fourth with his second place, just ahead of Georg Streitberger in fifth. Svindal has extended his lead in the race for the Overall.